A New Guardian
by Blind Visionary
Summary: Four hundred years have passed since Jack became a Guardian, and Pitch is back with an accomplice. As the title implies, there's a new legendary figure helping out. It's actually from her POV. Her and Jack are... frenemies?


Thump-crunch! The man's dead body landed on the pine needle floor. I landed lightly beside him. His face was permanently fixed in an expression of shock: his mouth open, eyes wide and filled with pain. The sunlight cast a hot glare upon the body.

"Not a bad job," I judged.

A winter wren twittered a critical response: Another one?

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you see? This is the only way."

In a flutter of indignant brown feathers, it flew home- a nest in one of the smaller trees about a kilometer away. I turned my attention back to the man on the ground. He was probably in his late thirties, with a full head of brownish hair, but lines on his face hinted at future wrinkles. In other words, he was a typical American man. I kicked his body over scornfully. He had no business in my forest.

'Really it was a thicket,' I amended in my mind. Long ago, it had been a lush ecosystem of 131,983 acres and countless wildlife species, but in the past few decades nearly all of it had been destroyed to make room for more buildings. My hand twitched and I fought for control, slowing my breath and banishing the unpleasant thoughts. 'Keep your cool Natty,' I told myself.

"Dinner!" I called, and a number of scavengers emerged from the growing shadows to begin working on the still-warm body. I fluidly shifted into my favorite form- a barn owl- and glided to the top of one of the last great redwoods. The sun was setting over the dark grey blur that was the ocean and I sighed sadly, remembering what it had once been. Oil, garbage, and other human filth had tainted it, making it toxic, so only the toughest species survived. After the plants died off from lack of light in the saturated water, the rest of the ecosystem pretty much disappeared in months. My heart twisted and I bent over in memory of the pain. Pain I hadn't felt since the atomic war 401 years ago. White hot agony engulfed me: I lost control of my form and the pure white feathers disappeared into light brown skin and thinned into my long auburn hair. I clutched the trunk of the tree, trying to shove the pain away. Suddenly, I was taken back to my birth, 436 years before.

It was cold. It was dark. I opened my eyes. Surrounding me was a half-burnt pine forest. Above me, the full moon cast a comforting light on the scene before me. I shivered, clothed only in a loose, dirty t-shirt as I paced tentatively around the clearing. The bright green growth of summer tickled my toes and everywhere I went, more grew. Curiously, I brushed my fingers along the bark of a tree and watched as vines crept over it.

The air was filled with the midsummer crickets, the hoots of owls, and the rich smell of soil. I passed over the two bodies in the dark of the trees, instead focusing on a swooping form- a juvenile hawk diving for a hidden mouse. I studied it curiously and felt pity for the tiny prey, despite the necessity of its death. The moment its heart stopped, I was engulfed in waves of pure, terrible agony. With its death, I had opened my heart to every living thing on the planet. From the tiniest ant being burned under a microscope to hundreds of trees being felled for lumber, I felt it all. I collapsed onto the grass and curled into a ball, screaming. No matter how much it hurt, I coud neither ride it out nor pass out. It just kept coming and coming until I couldn't scream anymore.

I turned over and tried to drag my attention from the pain, instead staring at the lonely moon. Over and over again, I asked: _Why_?

Surpisingly, it answered. _You are Mother Nature. You must care for those in pain, and to do so, you must understand it._

'That really helps. Thanks,' I grit my teeth and clawed at the soil. Four cycles of sunlight and moonlight passed before I was able to withstand it, pushing it to the back of my mind, but it was still hard. Every day. It was hard. SMACK!

The painful crunch of my back hitting a branch finally jolted me back to life. I swiftly shifted into the owl again and landed on the branch I had just crashed into. Lucky for me, I didn't actually break any bones. I didn't think I could. However, it still hurt quite a bit when I crashed into things like, well, the ground and branches. I ruffled my feathers, trying to shake off the injury. Blood stained my primary wing feathers where they tucked into my lower back.

"Oh well," I sighed. It would heal eventually. Until then, it was just another pain in the butt- literally. Too bad I can't laugh at my own lame humor. I study the half-eaten corpse. There was already a layer of frost on his blood. He probably had a wife, a family. I swallowed my sympathy. He deserved his fate for tainting this planet-a place so many call home. Studying the moon, I was surprised to find that it was already halfway through its sky-path. I must have been, er, having issues longer than I thought. I changed back into myself- my weird teenage, but not teenage, girl self, complete with a short stature, bare feet, and green eyes. An early-winter breeze attacked the trees, but even in my shorts and t-shirt it didn't bother me. I was naturally warm.

"Again?" a light, joking voice called from behind me. Oh brother. I turned around to see a tall, pale figure with a blue hoody, gnarled staff, and a sideways grin. It was the ever-annoying Jack Frost leaning against a nearby tree, standing on a branch slightly higher than mine.


End file.
